One Piece (Love Story) [Part Two]

Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty Three

-Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Three-

"I feel so helpless—I can barely see, it's no wonder everyone is on edge" Brook said as he took a look around, possibly feeling quite small due to the vastness of the sea around us and the overwhelming silence that seemed to accompany it.

"There's got to be a better way to tackle this" Usopp huffed as he realized we weren't getting anywhere in our search for the others. "You ladies got any ideas?" he asked as he turned towards the two women and me.

"Keep searching and hope for the best, we can't stop the ship right now" Nami informed him.

"Surely they haven't gone too far yet" Robin said. "We can't give up on them."

"Right" we nodded.

"Look! A jellyfish" Chopper suddenly pointed as a rather large jellyfish floated above the Sunny. "It's like we're inside it" he awed.

"It's huge! It feels like it could swallow us whole—and they're twinkling!" Brook remarked as he peered up at the invertebrates. "It's like a starry sky wherever they go..." he breathed in wonderment

"They're so beautiful!" Chopper gasped.

"Yes, but those stingers of theirs are still dangerous" I said, cautiously eyeing the long stingers that hung from the invertebrates' gelatinous-like bodies, one touch from something that huge could possibly kill or cause serious damage.

"Wow—that's one long tentacle!" Chopper exclaimed as one of the jellyfish's stingers snaked its way passed the ship's coating. "You want to shake hands and be friends?" he innocently asked.

"Chopper, no!" I gasped when I saw that the reindeer was beginning to reach out a hoof as if to touch the stinger that lingered near the ship.

"Whatever you do, don't touch it!" Robin quickly and sternly told him, causing him to freeze and look back at us in innocent confusion. "It's probably venomous!" as soon as she said this, he screamed and backed away from the appendage that was wiggling around in front of him. Now much more frightened of it than curious.

"Aw crap!" Franky clenched his jaw as a large fish suddenly came swimming towards us—opening its jaws wide in the process as if it had the intention of swallowing us whole. "No choice—Coup de Burst!" the ship rocketed forward, knocking the jellyfish that had settled on top of us off and allowing it to get caught up in the giant fish's jaws instead.

"No way!" Usopp and Chopper gaped at the sight.

"It ate that big giant jellyfish whole!" the reindeer whimpered.

"Uh...not to mention, we lost some air in that maneuver" Brook noted as he took a look around and saw that the ship's coating had shrunk a bit.

"It was better than the alternative" Franky told him. "But yeah, the Coup de Burst sucks in air to make a quick launch—thing is, cause we're underwater, its only resource is our air supply" he explained. "So obviously when we use it, our bubble shrinks a bit."

"That makes sense, but it doesn't make me feel better about our coating deflating" Brook nodded.

"It shouldn't since it means that every time we use that move, the more breathable air we lose in the process" I said.

"The fish that attacked turned upside down!" Chopper suddenly cried the moment he noticed that the large fish that had tried to eat us had now gone still.

"A neurotoxin, I figured as much" Robin said, looking just a bit pleased with herself that she had been right in her assumption that that jellyfish had been poisonous.